Bolivia: Half a million hectares affected by fires

(Credit: Save the Chiquitanía)

(CNN Spanish) -

In Bolivia around 500,000 hectares are affected by fires, according to the Minister of the Environment and Water, María Elva Pinckert.

Pinckert assured this Monday that, in this season of forest fires at the end of the southern winter, the affected regions are much drier than last year, when, according to the official, Bolivia lost 2.5 million hectares of forest, although she affirmed that the fires of this year they are concentrated in burning areas of grasslands and grasslands.

He also explained that more budget is being sought to fight the fires, although he assured that the fires are being addressed and that greater action with equipment will be deployed, for which the transfer to Santa Cruz of the necessary logistics is coordinated to prevent the advance of the flames.

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Pinckert stressed that, at the moment, the department most affected is Santa Cruz.

But he added that the Chiquitanía region, an area between the Amazon and the Chaco, which in 2019 was heavily affected by forest fires, is also being hit.

Cinthia Asín, Secretary of the Environment of Santa Cruz, who issued a red alert for the situation of the fires, assured this Sunday that there are 19 active forest fires in that region.

Regarding the proximity of the fire to the Noel Kempff Mercado National Park, the protected area located north of the department of Santa Cruz and which was declared a World Heritage Site in 2000, Asín said that "in the area of ​​firm ground of what It is the Noel Kempff Mercado park, there has been no rain, so strategies are being developed to create lines of defense to be able to stop that fire ”.

The official also said that place is inaccessible, “access is quite difficult, the temperatures are quite high;

however, we are working to prevent the fire from entering the wooded area.

At the moment, until now it has been concentrated in an area that is grassland ”.

For his part, the Minister of Defense, Luis Fernando López, reported that the ministerial cabinet ordered a technical analysis to repeal the regulations issued by Evo Morales in July 2019, which gave the green light to controlled burns for agriculture and livestock activities in private and community lands in the departments of Santa Cruz and Beni.

Fires